A connecting rod of this type, which is made of a composite fiber material, has been disclosed in the German Offenlegungsschrift DE-OS 34 16 011. In this connecting rod, the two connecting rod eyes are surrounded by a flexible clamping strap which encloses the connecting rod eyes from the outside. The strap is tensioned to exert a predetermined biasing force so that, when the connecting rod is in operation, the clamping strap is always subjected to a load in the tensile range and the connecting rod shank in the compression range. The clamping strap is associated with a mechanical tensioning device including a clamping bolt which extends transversely to the axial centerline of the connecting rod and which has attached to each of its ends a respective end of the clamping strap. The clamping bolt is provided with threaded portions which enable the clamping bolt to be adjusted along with a wedge and a wedge counter surface. The clamping strap, while in the relaxed condition, is placed over the connecting rod eyes and the connecting rod shank and is then adjusted to a predetermined load so that during operation the tensile loads will not cause the clamping strap to be appreciably stretched and the form-locking connection and load bearing engagement between the tensioning strap and the connecting rod shank will be fully maintained.
The disadvantage of this prior-art connecting rod is that the clamping arrangement for the bearing bracket consists of three parts, namely two nuts and a clamping bolt. Furthermore, the clamping bolt is relatively complex in design since it is a non-circular part with threaded ends which cannot be made on a lathe, nor can it be simply cast or be made on a milling machine. But more importantly, in the case of a connecting rod made of metal, especially one that is cast, the clamping bolt cannot be mounted into a bearing yoke for the bearing bracket. In the case of the prior-art connecting rod, this is possible only because the clamping straps are flexible and therefore enable the clamping bolt with the threaded ends to be placed therebetween. Another shortcoming in this arrangement is that the assembly operation is costly and time consuming because the two threaded ends must be accessible to enable adjustment of the clamping bolt.